Poem - A River, Poetess - Tanja Ajtic (Serbia/Canada)

A River 

Tanja Ajtic

Serbia/Canada

You who live near the river 

You believe in images of little gods of love 

In ancient Roman art 

And Renaissance as well as a new era. 

In a lovely little winged child entertained with 

various jobs 

You see them and speak like Socrates: 

“I know I do not know anything!” 

You say that the world is a property without a master 

And that it is not known who its creator is? 

You as a free thinker, neither good nor bad, 

Indifferent, but not powerless. 

You see those beautiful children in the glare of the river 

Which flows for you into infinity and you enjoy. 

You have a safe haven and enough air 

To survive everything 

In the air that can cause it 

Chemical changes and you can calculate them 

Only if you want. 

You live in your own reflection of an image 

And I believe you 

That the world can be a nice place 

If we look at ourselves. 

Then everything is clear.

Biography

Tanja Ajtic was born in Belgrade, Serbia. She lived and studied in Serbia at the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade. Since 2002, she lives and creates in Canada, Vancouver. Moved to Belgrade, Serbia in summer 2023. She is a member of many groups and associations. Her poems and stories have been published two hundred collections (books), anthologies, electronic books and magazines. Her poems have been published in English, Serbian, Chinese, Croatian, Iraqi, Bengali, Indian, Bulgarian, Tunisian, Arabic and Spanish. In the spring of 2018, at the "Pegasus" competition of the Literary Youth of Serbia, Belgrade, she won the award for printing the first book of poetry "Outlines of Love". Her book was exhibited at the Book Fair in 2018 in Belgrade, as well as at the Book Salon in Toronto in 2019. She is represented in the Anthology among the 30 best writers for 2020 by the Association of Writers of Australia. She won first place, the award of authors from abroad in the Federation of BiH (2020) and the second prize in Great Britain from the Serbian Library in London. Participated in book fairs with collections and anthologies with other authors. Won III World Prize for Excellence "Cesar Vallejo" 2021 in the category of artistic excellence, Peru, by the World Spanish Union of Writers and International Award of Excellence, "Cita Del Galateo" Antonio De Ferrariis, IX edition 2022 – Rome, Italy, prestigious prize for a group of poets in the English language; winners of Foundation Naji Naaman literary prize 2023; winning the 2023 “Zheng Nian Cup” Literary Award – Third Prize by the Beijing Mindfulness Literature Museum. She is the winner of many awards, diplomas and certificate. She is currently writing poetry, short stories, haiku, gogyoshi poetry as well as graphics artist as a freelance artist. Hers art graphic were published in books and magazines.